Jesuits: Father Arrupe's Cause of Beatification to open on February 5

The announcement by the Jesuit superior, Father Arturo Sosa, on the sainthood cause of his predecessor who led the Society of Jesus in the post-Council years

Father Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983

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Pubblicato il
16/11/2018

iacopo scaramuzzi

vatican city

The cause of beatification for Father Pedro Arrupe, the historical Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983, is now official. In a letter to the Jesuits, the current superior Father Artuso Sosa announced that the session that will formally open the cause of the “Servant of God” will take place on February 5, 2019 in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.

Father Arrupe (Bilbao, 14 November 1907 - Rome, 5 February 1991), a medical student before being ordained priest in 1936, was a missionary in Japan for twenty years, ever since the time of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. As first provincial of the Society of Jesus in Japan (1958-1965), he took part in the General Congregation that elected him, on 22 May 1965, a few months after the conclusion of Vatican Council II, the 28th general prelate of the order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Father Arrupe guided the Society of Jesus through the complex years of post-Council renewal. A prophet of justice and social commitment, he encouraged the inculturation of the Gospel, urged the Society to work with refugees (his, among others, the intuition of the Jesuit Refugee Service), urged the rediscovery of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, and promoted ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. "His work has often been at the centre of conflicting judgments and evaluations", recalls the book "Pedro Arrupe. Un uomo per gli altri" (A man for others), edited by the historian Gianni La Bella (Il Mulino, 2008), the first work that reconstructs his figure in depth, "placing it in the complexity of the historical, cultural and religious events of his time and thus "giving back to Arrupe what was once of Arrupe". Now news has broke of the opening of the cause for his beatification.

Already in July Father Sosa announced that the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Angelo De Donatis, had given his approval to open the diocesan process in Rome, the diocese where Arrupe died. In a letter to the Jesuits signed on 15 November (the day after what would have been Arrupe's 111th birthday), the General of the Society of Jesus has communicated that "the process towards the possible beatification of Father Pedro Arrupe, the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, has officially begun. From now on, therefore, he is considered a "Servant of God"".

More specifically, "once the nihil obstat of the Holy See and the consent of the bishops in and around Rome have been received, and the absence of obstacles within the People of God has been ensured, on February 5, 2019, on the 28th anniversary of his death, the session that will formally open the cause will take place at the Basilica of St. John Lateran". Then, "the various persons in charge of the diocesan process will begin their work by gathering the testimony of more than a hundred witnesses, mainly from Spain, Japan and Italy. In fact, in recent months, two commissions have already begun their work, reviewing all his published works and many unpublished documents written by or about Father Arrupe and the social and ecclesial context in which he lived. The postulator general of the Society in Rome "will put together all these data, together with all the information about his life and holiness, and the graces and favors received through his intercession". For the occasion, a new website on Father Arrupe has just been created.

"After prayer and careful consideration, the Company asked for the beginning of this ecclesial discernment of the heroic virtues of Father Arrupe," says Father Sosa. "During the last few months, as I have told people about this intention during my travels to some places, I have been able to see for myself how alive the memory and legacy of Father Arrupe are. Eloquent and even moving postulatory letters received from all over the world confirm that his reputation for holiness is recognized in different sectors of the church. This reputation of holiness is spontaneous, continuous and lasting. Jesuits and non-Jesuits everywhere have witnessed to the exceptional qualities of Father Arrupe: his desire to fulfill in everything the will of God the Father, his rootedness in Jesus Christ, his trust in the Holy Spirit as guide of the Church, his firm loyalty to the Holy Father, the "Vicar of Christ on earth", his missionary disposition, his personal fidelity to our way of proceeding, his sensitivity to dramatic social situations, his love and closeness to the poor.

"Father Pedro Arrupe - Sosa writes - proved to be an extraordinary, passionate, "man of God and man of the Church". His "enthusiastic, free, wise and faithful presence in the tumultuous Church of the Council, in which the Spirit had spread his light, he expressed the desire to integrate the best values of tradition with those necessary for the adaptation of Christianity to the new times". In the following decades the Council, "he - the Superior of the Jesuits continues - applied with "creative fidelity", so much so that, in 2007, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach (successor of Father Arrupe, ed.) described him as a "prophet of the Council renewal". Referring to this period in 2011, Father Adolfo Nicolás (successor of Father Kolvenbach and predecessor of Father Sosa, ed.) recalled Father Arrupe's insistence that "the spirit of St. Ignatius guides and directs us in this important time in the life of the Church," a Church that he always wanted to serve unconditionally.

For the Jesuit superior, "the person of Father Pedro Arrupe, in this time of grace as we move towards a desired beatification, will inspire in the Jesuits and in those with whom we share the mission, a greater desire for spiritual union and renewal, pushing us to greater collaboration in the reconciliation of all things in Christ, guiding us, "under the Roman Pontiff", wherever the Spirit may guide us. May Our Lady of the Road continue to accompany us on this path of prayer and discernment so that through her hand we may be close to the Lord Jesus and grow as disciples”.